Disclaimer: The characters and concept of “Smallville” belong to Al Gough, Miles Millar, the WB, and DC Comics. I own not a thing.

Author’s Note: Welcome to my AU world. In this world, the events of “Shattered” never took place. Lex is happy, healthy, and sane, thanks to his lovely wife. Deb, Merry Christmas! This story was written in honor of your Lex/Chloe futurefics.

Chloe Sullivan-Luthor peered out of the limo window and sighed. The fact that the snowflakes were getting bigger worried her. According to the weatherman, the temperature was supposed to dip below freezing that night and the snow was supposed to stick. At the current moment, it seemed to be doing just that.

Turning away from the window, Chloe looked at her husband, Lex Luthor. As usual, he was on the phone discussing some aspect of Lexcorp with another CEO. She lightly placed her hand on his knee, causing him to look up.

“It’s Christmas Eve. Do you have to talk business?” she asked.

Lex placed his hand over the mouthpiece of his cell. “Chloe, it’s important. It won’t take two seconds, I promise.”

“It won’t take two seconds.” Sure. Lately, all Lex had been doing was talking on the phone or spending time at the office. They hardly had any time together anymore.

Taking a deep breath, she sank into the leather seat and looked back out the window. She had never seen so much snow in Metropolis before. Pure, white flakes delicately landed on the glass as the limo continued its slow ride to the airport.

After a few more minutes, Lex snapped the cell shut and turned his attention to his wife. “Yes! Mr. Hoff finally folded. He’s going to invest in our latest project.”

“That’s wonderful, dear,” Chloe answered half-heartedly.

Lex never caught the unenthusiastic tone in Chloe’s voice. “So, are you excited about seeing your aunts and uncles again?”

“Oh, yeah. I just wish we had left earlier. The snow is getting thicker out there.”

“We’ll be fine. Marco is the finest driver we’ve hired so far. I have complete faith in him.”

Just then, Lex and Chloe were thrown forward as the limo came to a sudden stop. Righting herself, Chloe looked up to see her husband undoing his seatbelt. He tapped on the glass in front of them with a concerned look on his face. The glass slid down.

“What happened?” he demanded.

Marco was in the process of climbing out of the car. “I’m not sure, sir. I think we hit something.” With that, he closed the driver’s side door.

Lex turned to Chloe. “I’ll be right back.” Before she could protest, he wrapped his coat tighter around himself and got out of the car.

Folding her arms, Chloe settled back into the seat, thankful that the car was still running and the heater was still working. Eventually, her curious nature got the better of her, and she left the car. She found the two men at the front of the limo. Marco was kneeling down, examining the tires, while Lex stood over him.

“Is there any way we can get the car out?” Lex was asking.

Marco shook his head. “I’m sorry, sir. Looks like she’s stuck.”

“Damn.”

“What’s wrong?” Chloe asked as she approached the two.

Lex scowled as he looked up at her. “We’re stuck in the snow, and I don’t think we’re going to make the plane on time.” Frustrated, he kicked the tire. “Whose bright idea was it to not put snow tires on this thing? I want his head on a platter.”

Chloe wrapped her arms around him and placed her head on his shoulder. “It’ll be all right. So, we’re stuck. I’m sure Marco can eventually get help.”

“Of course, sir. I’ll call for a tow truck right now.” The harried limo driver stood up and made his way back to the driver’s side of the car.

None of this reassured Lex a bit, and he wrinkled his forehead in irritation. “This was someone’s responsibility. They were supposed to make sure that we could get to the airport. Our safety was in their hands, and here we are…stuck on the side of the road. I swear I will find out who’s responsible, and they will be looking for a new job in the New Year. This should not have…” Just then, a snowball smacked him square in the face, stunning him for a moment. Cleaning snow out of his mouth and eyes, he noticed that Chloe stood in front of him laughing, her gloves covered in snow.

When he didn’t say anything, she just laughed harder. “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t resist.”

Lex wanted to continue his tirade, even yell at his wife, but he couldn’t seem to muster up the anger anymore. Slowly, a sneaky smile spread across his face as he gathered up snow into his own gloves. Before Chloe could duck, a huge snowball smacked her in the chest. This only made her laugh harder and start gathering more snow.

Lex was on guard this time, though, and was ready to reciprocate with his own white, fluffy weapon. No sooner had Chloe bent down to collect more snow than Lex ran towards her and dropped his handful of snow down her back. She squealed as she turned around and dropped a huge bunch of snow on top of his bald head. In the end, they were both on the ground, laughing.

“Uh, excuse me, sir. A tow truck should be here in a few minutes,” Marco’s tentative voice caused the happy couple to look up.

“Wonderful!” Lex exclaimed as he chuckled. He threw a snowball at Marco. “Here, have some snow.”

Marco just shook his head, brushed off his jacket, and headed back to the car.

After a while, Lex and Chloe got tired of tossing snowballs at each other. They crawled back into the limo, and Lex wrapped his arms around his wife.